The Last Night She Cried
by pistol.pistol
Summary: A bar hostess and the hired help. A fragile girl. An evil corporation and the rebels trying to dismantle it. An old friend, and a destructive force sleeping in the hidden hospital room. These people, and more, hold the future of the world in their hands.


_Hi! This is my very first fanfic, so please excuse all the noob-ness it has to offer, haha. This fic will get much darker and violent over time, so please use discretion! My grammar and punctuation are nowhere near perfect, so any help would be much appreciated. Anyways, hope you enjoy!_

_Prologue_

The lights dimmed. Even as the crowd hushed, the sound of anticipation floated thick in the air. An excited murmer here, a set of wide eyes there. Tifa smirked. This had all become the ol' 'song and dance' to her. In the darkness, it was hard to see all the patrons. She wondered how many were return costumers and how many were here to witness it for the first time. As she saw the man next to her chug down the rest of his beer before swivelling his bar stool towards the direction of the makeshift stage with a look of fear in his eyes, she knew for a fact, _oh, he's new, alright_. She grinned.

Tifa leaned her elbows against a liqour shelf and glanced towards the 'stage'. It was nothing more than a couple of crates placed on the floor, with plaid bedsheets duct-taped together, acting as the stage curtain. _Oh, well,_ she mused, _it's not about the beauty of the scenery, but whats on the stage itself that's important._ Besides, her bar was just that, a bar. Tifa's 7th Heaven, a slummers paradise. She wasn't running a concert hall here. _Well, on second thought... _

...She had met the girl on a dirty cobblestone road. The girl seemed lost, disoriented, and above all else, under-fed and cold. There was nothing really out of the ordinary about that, the slums were filled with people like that. Hell, Tifa felt lost and disoriented herself, just making her way to the grocery store. But no, there was something much different about this girl. She had a smell to her, a smell that reminded Tifa of her home. Of cinnamon, of gingerbread men, of her piano and her mother's vanilla perfume. Of warmth and memories.  
And the way this lost girl looked! She had never seen such a beautiful, ethereal creature. Her skin seemed to glow a pale white, like what Tifa remembered the moon had looked like. Her eyes, though red with tears and frustration, were a brilliant emerald. Tifa remembered, as a child, playing in a field full of shamrocks. She could see those very same shamrocks in this girl's eyes.

Tifa pulled her jacket off as she ran towards the girl.

Her eyes were filled with concern and worry as she made her way across the street. She was much too small and much too fragile to be out by herself in this area. This tiny girl was too perfect a target for any of the predators that made their homes here. _Besides, us girls have to stick together down here_. "Excuse me, miss, but are you lost?" Tifa asked as she approached the girl, offering her jacket in her outstretched arms.

The girl whipped around in a flurry, catching Tifa off gaurd. Upon seeing another females face, her tense muscles relaxed. Her eyes trailed down to the jacket.

"Take it. Please take it, you're freezing."

She hesitantly reached out towards the wool covering, her stick thin arms shivering in the cold. Who was this kind woman, and why was she offering the coat from her own back?

"Who... who...", she trailed off. Tifa was surprised at how raspy her voice was.

"My name is Tifa. It's freezing out here, and you're without a coat or shoes. It's too dangerous for you to be wandering around here all alone! Please, lets find a phone together. Do you have anyone to call?"

Something in what Tifa had said opened the floodgates. Tears streamed down the girls face and sobs wracked her body. Tifa placed her arm around her small waist and pulled the girl close to her own body. Together, the went in search of the nearest phone.

That had been one year ago. In time, Tifa had learned that the girl infact had no one to call. She had discovered her mother's bullet-riddled body the day she met Tifa. Her mother's purse had been stolen; she had 15gil in her wallet. The girl had nowhere to go, and Tifa was desperately lonely, so she offered up her own home to her. She lived above her bar, in a quiet, lonesome apartment. The girl accepted. She and Tifa quickly became fast friends. Often times, the girl would watch Tifa in amazement. The men would fall at her feet, and she would quickly put them down and make them appear foolish, much to the delight of everyone watching. She was so smart, so brave and so strong! _I can barely twist off a juice lid, yet Tifa is a martial artist who breaks boards or bricks or necks or whatever those black belts do_, the girl once thought.

It had been hard at first. The loss of her mother was a hard one, and one that she struggled with everyday.

"Aeris," Tifa would start, holding the girls hands, "Aeris, I...I know how hard it is. I lost my family, too. Sometimes, I think about it at night, and I cry. It's okay to cry, and it's okay to share your pain with someone else. You know I love you, and I'll always be here for you."

And then, there were the quirks. Often times, Tifa would overhear Aeris singing. Her voice was magnificent, like that of an angel, but the language was something Tifa had never heard before. When Tifa would ask her what she was singing, Aeris would appear embarrassed, and tell her it was something she had heard when she was younger, but she didn't remember exactly where.

"Aeris, your voice is gorgeous! Look, it gave me goosebumps!" She thrust her arm out, little white bumps lining her arm like a neighborhood of igloos.

Then one day, over the dinner table, Aeris appeared troubled.

"What's on your mind?" Tifa inquired.

Aeris sighed. "Well.. I feel like I'm a burden to you! I've been staying here for months now, eating your food, using your utilites, even wearing your clothes! Please, don't think I'm undermining your kindness; you're the sweetest, most giving person I think I've ever met, but... I just wish I could help out, is all."

Tifa sat back in her chair, her lips pursed and her eyes darting this way and that, deep in thought. She didn't need any help with the bar, she had hired help for that long ago; a quiet, peaceful man named Vincent. No, no bar help...

..."I got it! Aeris, your voice is stunning, and the songs you sing are so exotic. When I hear you sing, I'm filled with this peaceful, warm feeling, and all I want to do is sit and hear you sing more and more. So, why not kill two or three birds with the same stone? Draw people in and keep them there, class up this joint a bit, AND show off your voice and make everyone jealous?"

Tifa poked her in the arm with a devilish grin.

Aeris sighed. She wanted to help, but not like _that_! "I dunno, T. You think all those people would want me hollering at them while they're trying to relax?"

Tifa couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. "Aeris, you aren't hollering, you're singing, there's a huge difference. And it's _my_ bar. If I want wild chocobos to dance the can-can, then by Gods, I'll hire the damn chocobos! Besides, the way you sing, those words you use... please don't take this the wrong way, because it's an amazing thing, but you sound almost... well, not human."

Aeris' head cocked to the side at that. Tifa was almost afraid that she had hurt her friend when Aeris' eyes grew as wide as dinner plates.

"Oh, T, I just had the craziest idea!"

The next day, the girls made their way to the nearest costume shop. An old, burgandy, Victorian-style dress, a wig full of wild purple and blue curls, and the whitest, glitteriest makeup were among their purchases. And the rest, as they say, was Tifa's 7th Heaven history.

Tifa was brought back from her thoughts when the man who had turned his barstool turned back towards her. "Is she really from outer space? Should I have brought my gun? She won't attack me, will she?"

A smile crept onto her lips, and her eyes rolled up to the ceiling in disbelief at how much these people bought the whole "opera singing creature from outer space" story. Just as she opened her lips to respond to the man, the curtains drew back from the stage. There stood Aeris, a somber, meloncholy look on her sparkling pale face. The curls on her wig fell over her shoulders and down her back in a sea of ocean blues and setting sun purples. The crowd gasped upon setting there eyes on her. She appeared as a cosmic goddess, a celestial being. Some were fearful, others excited. A woman towards the front of the stage cupped her hand over her mouth. "Oh, George, oh, George, look at it! It's a space queen!", she gasped to the man sitting next to her.

Aeris, playing her part to the hilt, let her eyes slowly crawl over every person sitting front row. Upon meeting her gaze, some would shrink back and some others would lean in. She lifted her arms up slowly at her sides, and as the first note left her lips, Tifa felt that old familliar feeling.

She inspected her arms. _There are those goosebumps again,_ she thought with a smile.


End file.
